Conan the Barbarian

Production Budget Analysis

What was the production budget for Conan the Barbarian?

Directed by John Milius, with Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Earl Jones, Max von Sydow leading the cast, Conan the Barbarian was produced by The De Laurentiis Company with a confirmed budget of $20,000,000, placing it in the low-budget category for adventure films as part of the Conan the Barbarian Collection.

At $20,000,000, Conan the Barbarian was produced on a modest budget. Lower-budget films benefit from reduced break-even thresholds, with profitability achievable at approximately $50,000,000.

Budget Comparison — Similar Productions

• 12 Years a Slave (2013): Budget $20,000,000 | Gross $187,000,000 → ROI: 835% • 21 Grams (2003): Budget $20,000,000 | Gross $60,427,839 → ROI: 202% • 3 Ninjas Kick Back (1994): Budget $20,000,000 | Gross $11,798,854 → ROI: -41% • A Guy Thing (2003): Budget $20,000,000 | Gross $17,400,000 → ROI: -13% • A Most Violent Year (2014): Budget $20,000,000 | Gross $12,007,070 → ROI: -40%

Key Budget Allocation Categories

▸ Stunts, Action Sequences & Visual Effects Action films allocate a substantial portion of their budget to choreographing and executing practical stunts, pyrotechnics, and CGI-heavy sequences. For large-scale productions, VFX alone can account for 20–30% of the total budget, with additional costs for stunt coordinators, rigging, and safety crews.

▸ Above-the-Line Talent (Cast & Director) A-list talent commands significant upfront fees plus backend participation. Lead actors in major action franchises typically earn $10–25 million per film, with directors often receiving comparable compensation packages tied to box office performance.

▸ Production Design, Sets & Locations Action films frequently require multiple international shooting locations, large-scale set construction, vehicle acquisitions and modifications, and specialized equipment — all of which drive production costs well above those of dialogue-driven genres.

Key Production Personnel

CAST: Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Earl Jones, Max von Sydow, Sandahl Bergman, Ben Davidson Key roles: Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan; James Earl Jones as Thulsa Doom; Max von Sydow as King Osric; Sandahl Bergman as Valeria

DIRECTOR: John Milius CINEMATOGRAPHY: Duke Callaghan MUSIC: Basil Poledouris EDITING: Carroll Timothy O'Meara PRODUCTION: The De Laurentiis Company, Pressman Film FILMED IN: United States of America

Box Office Performance

Conan the Barbarian earned $39,565,475 domestically and $29,286,000 internationally, for a worldwide total of $68,851,475. Revenue was split 57% domestic / 43% international.

Break-Even Analysis

Using the industry-standard 2.5x multiplier (P&A + exhibitor shares of 40–50% + distribution fees), Conan the Barbarian needed approximately $50,000,000 to break even. The film surpassed this threshold by $18,851,475.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Revenue: $68,851,475 Budget: $20,000,000 Net: $48,851,475 ROI: 244.3%

Profitability Assessment

VERDICT: Profitable

Conan the Barbarian delivered a solid return, earning $68,851,475 worldwide on a $20,000,000 budget (244% ROI). Combined with ancillary revenue, the film was a financial positive for The De Laurentiis Company.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

Franchise: Conan the Barbarian is part of the Conan the Barbarian Collection.

The outsized success of Conan the Barbarian likely influenced studio greenlight decisions for similar adventure projects.

Whereas most comic book and pulp adaptations were box office failures in the 1980s, Conan the Barbarian was one of the few that made a profit. According to Sammon, it became the standard against which sword-and-sorcery films were measured until the debut of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001; several contemporary films of the same genre were judged by critics to be clones of Conan, such as The Beastmaster (1982). Conans success inspired low-budget copycats, such as Ator, the Fighting Eagle (1982) and Deathstalker (1983). Its sequel, Conan the Destroyer, was produced and released in 1984; only a few of those involved in the first film, such as Schwarzenegger, Mako, and Poledouris, returned. Later big- and small-screen adaptations of Robert E. Howard's stories were considered by Sammon to be inferior to the film that started the trend. A spinoff from Conan was a 20-minute live-action show, The Adventures of Conan: A Sword and Sorcery Spectacular, that ran from 1983 to 1993 at Universal Studios Hollywood. Produced at a cost of $5 million, the show featured action scenes executed to music composed by Poledouris. The show's highlights were pyrotechnics, lasers, and an animatronic dragon that breathed fire.

Several of those involved in the film reaped short-term benefits. Sandahl Bergman's Golden Globe for her role as Valeria marks her greatest achievement in the film industry; her later roles failed to gain her further recognition.

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Development

John Milius first expressed interest in directing a film about Conan in 1978 after completing the filming of Big Wednesday, according to Buzz Feitshans, a producer who frequently worked with Milius. Milius had long been an admirer of films like 1958's The Vikings. He and Feitshans approached Pressman, but differences over several issues stopped discussions from going further.

Oliver Stone joined the Conan project after Paramount Pictures offered to fund the film's initial $2.5 million budget if a "name screenwriter" was on the team. After securing Stone's services, Pressman approached Frank Frazetta to be a "visual consultant", but they failed to come to terms. The producer then engaged Ron Cobb, who had just completed a set design job on Alien (1979). Cobb made a series of paintings and drawings for Pressman before leaving to join Milius on another project.

The estimates to realize Stone's finished script ran to $40 million. Pressman, Summer, and Stone could not convince a studio to finance their project. Pressman's production company was in financial difficulties and in order to keep it afloat he borrowed money from the bank. The failure to find a suitable director was also a problem for the project. Stone and Joe Alves, who was the second unit director on Jaws 2, were considered as possible co-directors, but Pressman said it "was a pretty crazy idea and [they] didn't get anywhere with it". Stone also said that he asked Ridley Scott, who had finished directing Alien, to take up the task, but was rejected. Ralph Bakshi was also in talks to direct.

Cobb showed Milius his work for Conan and Stone's script, which according to him, reignited Milius's interest; the director contacted Pressman, and they came to an agreement: Milius would direct the film if he were allowed to modify the script. Milius was known in the film industry for his macho screenplays for Dirty Harry (1971) and Magnum Force (1973).

▸ Writing

The drafting of a story for a Conan film started in 1976; Summer conceived a script with the help of comic book writer Roy Thomas, who had been adapting the character's adventures for Marvel Comics since 1970. Summer and Thomas's tale, in which Conan would be employed by a "dodgy priest to kill an evil wizard", was largely based on Howard's "Rogues in the House". Their script was abandoned when Oliver Stone joined the project. Stone was, at this time, going through a period of addiction to cocaine and depressants. His screenplay was written under the influence of the drugs; the result was what Milius called a "total drug fever dream", albeit an inspired one. According to Schwarzenegger, Stone completed a draft by early 1978. Taking inspiration from Howard's "Black Colossus" and "A Witch Shall be Born", Stone proposed a story, four hours long, in which the hero champions the defense of a princess's kingdom. Instead of taking place in the distant past, Stone's story was set in a post-apocalyptic future where Conan leads an army in a massive battle against a horde of 10,000 mutants.

When Milius was appointed as director, he took over the task of writing the screenplay. Although listed as a co-writer, Stone said Milius did not incorporate any of his suggestions into the final story. Milius discarded the latter half of Stone's story. He retained several scenes from the first half, such as Conan's crucifixion ordeal, which was taken straight out of "A Witch Shall be Born", and the climbing of the Tower of Serpents, which was derived from "The Tower of the Elephant". One of Milius's original changes was to extend Stone's brief exposition of Conan's youth—the raid on the Cimmerian village—into his teens with the barbarian's enslavement at the Wheel of Pain and training as a gladiator. Milius also added ideas gleaned from other films.

▸ Casting

! Actor ! Role

While they were working to secure the film rights, Pressman and Summer were also contemplating the lead role. Summer said they considered Charles Bronson, Sylvester Stallone and William Smith—all of whom had played tough figures but, in 1976, the two producers watched a rough cut of the bodybuilding film, Pumping Iron, and agreed that Arnold Schwarzenegger was perfect for the role of Conan due to his huge, muscular frame. According to Schwarzenegger, Pressman's "low-key" approach and "great inner strength" convinced him to join the project. Paul Sammon, writer for Cinefantastique, said that the former champion bodybuilder was practically the "living incarnation of one of Frazetta's paperback illustrations". Schwarzenegger was paid $250,000 and placed on retainer; the terms of the contract restricted him from starring in other sword-and-sorcery films. Schwarzenegger said Conan was his biggest opportunity to establish himself in the entertainment industry.

Thanks to Pressman's firm belief in him, Schwarzenegger retained the role of Conan even after the project was effectively sold to De Laurentiis. Milius wanted a more athletic look on his lead actor, so Schwarzenegger undertook an 18-month training regimen before shooting began. Besides running and lifting weights, his routines included rope climbing, horseback riding, and swimming. He slimmed down from . Aside from Conan, two other substantial roles were also played by novice actors. Subotai was Gerry Lopez, a champion surfer, whose only major acting experience was playing himself in Milius's Big Wednesday. Schwarzenegger stayed at Lopez's home for over a month before the start of filming so they could rehearse their roles and build a rapport. Sandahl Bergman, a dancer who had had bit parts in several theater productions and films, played Valeria.

▸ Filming & Locations

Filming started at England's Shepperton Studios in October 1980, with Schwarzenegger, made up to look like Conan as a king in his old age, reading an excerpt from "The Nemedian Chronicles", which Howard had penned to introduce his Conan stories. This footage was initially intended to be a trailer, but Milius decided to use it as the opening sequence of the film, instead. According to Cobb, Laurentiis and Universal Pictures were concerned about Schwarzenegger's accent, so Milius compromised by moving the sequence to the end. Schwarzenegger trained with voice coach Robert Easton and with Milius in order to eliminate his accent, but their efforts proved to be unsuccessful, so the planned narration which was intended to begin with this scene was not included in the final film.

The initial location for principal photography was former Yugoslavia, but because of concerns over the country's stability after the death of its head of state, Josip Broz Tito, and the fact that the Yugoslavian film industry proved ill-equipped for large-scale film production, the producers elected to move the project to Spain, which was cheaper and where resources were more easily available. It took several months to relocate; the crew and equipment arrived in September, and filming started on January 7, 1981. The producers allocated $11 million for production in Spain, of which about $3 million were spent on building 49 sets. The construction workforce numbered from 50 to 200; artists from England, Italy, and Spain were also recruited.

A large warehouse outside Madrid served as the production's headquarters, and it also housed most of the interior sets for the Tower of Serpents and Doom's temple; a smaller warehouse was leased for other interior sets. The remaining interiors for the Tower of Serpents were constructed in an abandoned hangar at Torrejón Air Base.

▸ Music & Score

Milius recruited his friend, Basil Poledouris, to produce the score for Conan; they had had a successful collaboration on Big Wednesday. The film industry's usual practice was to contract a composer to start work after the main scenes had been filmed, but Milius hired Poledouris before principal photography had started. The composer was given the opportunity to compose the film's music based on the initial storyboards and to modify it throughout filming before recording the score near the end of production. Poledouris made extensive use of Musync, a music and tempo editing hardware and software system invented by Robert Randles (subsequently nominated for an Academy Scientific and Technical Award), to modify the tempo of his compositions and synchronize them with the action in the film. The system helped make his job easier and faster; it could automatically adjust tempos when the user changed the positioning of beats. In the montage where Conan grows up, for example, Poledouris had Randles prepare, over the phone, a long accelerando that landed on precise moments in the picture along the way. Poledouris would otherwise have had to conduct the orchestra and adjust his compositions on the fly. Conan is the first film to list Musync in its credits.

Milius and Poledouris exchanged ideas throughout production, working out themes and "emotional tones" for each scene. According to Poledouris, Milius envisioned Conan as an opera with little or no dialogue; Poledouris composed enough musical pieces for most of the film (around two hours' worth). This was his first large-scale orchestral score, and a characteristic of his work here was that he frequently slowed down the tempo of the last two bars (segments of beats) before switching to the next piece of music. Poledouris said the score uses a lot of fifths as its most primitive interval; thirds and sixths are introduced as the story progresses.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Summary: 2 wins & 10 nominations total

Awards Won: ★ Saturn Award for Best Actress — Sandahl Bergman (10th Saturn Awards)

Nominations: ○ Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor (3rd Golden Raspberry Awards)

Additional Recognition: Conan the Barbarian was nominated for Best Fantasy Film, Best Costumes, and Best Make-up at the 10th Saturn Awards with Sandahl Bergman won Best Actress for her performance as Valeria. Bergman also won Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year—Actress at the 40th Golden Globe Awards. Poledouris's score was judged by Films in Reviews Page Cook as the second best sound track of the films released in 1982. The film was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor for Arnold Schwarzenegger at the 3rd Golden Raspberry Awards.

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: * 2003: AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains: ** Conan – Nominated Hero * 2005: AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – Nominated * 2008: AFI's 10 Top 10: ** Nominated Fantasy Film

CRITICAL RECEPTION

The media's reactions toward Conan were polarized. Aspects of the film heavily criticized by one side were regarded in a positive light by the other; Professor Kenneth von Gunden wrote, "for every positive review the film garnered, it received two negative ones." The opinions of Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times and Richard Schickel of Time illustrate their colleagues' divided views. Ebert called Conan the Barbarian "a perfect fantasy for the alienated preadolescent", whereas Schickel said, "Conan is a sort of psychopathic Star Wars, stupid and stupefying." Although reviews were mixed at the time of the film's release, modern genre critics review the film more positively. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 67% based on 42 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though Conan may take itself too seriously for some, this adventure film about a former slave seeking vengeance is full of quotable Schwarzenegger lines and gritty action." On Metacritic, the film received a score of 43 based on 10 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Some critics felt that there was too much violence in the movie, while others felt that the violence failed to match up to Howard's portrayals (as illustrated by Hugh Rankin in Weird Tales).

At the time Conan was released, the media were inclined to condemn Hollywood's portrayals of violence; typical action films showed the hero attaining his goals by killing all who stood in his way. Conan was particularly condemned for its violent scenes, which Newsweeks Jack Kroll called "cheerless and styleless". In one of his articles for the San Francisco Chronicle, Stu Schreiberg counted 50 people killed in various scenes. Other film critics differed over the film's portrayal of violence.